A storage system typically comprises one or more storage devices into which information may be entered, and from which information may be obtained, as desired. The storage system includes a storage operating system that functionally organizes the system by, inter alia, invoking storage operations in support of a storage service implemented by the system. The storage system may be implemented in accordance with a variety of storage architectures including, but not limited to, a network-attached storage environment, a storage area network and a disk assembly directly attached to a client or host computer. Storage of information on the disk array is preferably implemented as one or more storage “volumes” of physical disks, defining an overall logical arrangement of disk space.
The storage operating system of the storage system may implement a high-level module, such as a file system, to logically organize the information stored on the disks as a hierarchical structure of directories, files and blocks. A known type of file system is a write-anywhere file system that does not overwrite data on disks. If a data block is retrieved (read) from disk into a memory of the storage system and “dirtied” (i.e., updated or modified) with new data, the data block is thereafter stored (written) to a new location on disk to optimize write performance. A write-anywhere file system may initially assume an optimal layout such that the data is substantially contiguously arranged on disks. The optimal disk layout results in efficient access operations, particularly for sequential read operations, directed to the disks. An example of a write-anywhere file system that is configured to operate on a storage system is the Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL™) file system available from Network Appliance, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.
The write-anywhere file system (such as the WAFL file system) has the capability to generate a snapshot of its active file system. An “active file system” is a file system to which data can be both written and read or, more generally, an active store that responds to both read and write I/O operations. It should be noted that “snapshot” is a trademark of Network Appliance, Inc. and is used for purposes of this patent to designate a persistent consistency point (CP) image. A persistent consistency point image (PCPI) is a space conservative, point-in-time read-only image of data accessible by name that provides a consistent image of that data (such as a storage system) at some previous time. More particularly, a PCPI is a point-in-time representation of a storage element, such as an active file system, file or database, stored on a storage device (e.g., on disk) or other persistent memory and having a name or other identifier that distinguishes it from other PCPIs taken at other points in time. In the case of the WAFL file system, a PCPI is always an active file system image that contains complete information about the file system, including all metadata. A PCPI can also include other information (metadata) about the active file system at the particular point in time for which the image is taken. The terms “PCPI” and “snapshot” may be used interchangeably through out this patent without derogation of Network Appliance's trademark rights.
The write-anywhere file system supports multiple snapshots that are generally created on a regular schedule. Each snapshot refers to a copy of the file system that diverges from the active file system over time as the active file system is modified. In the case of the WAFL file system, the active file system diverges from the snapshots since the snapshots stay in place as the active file system is written to new disk locations. Each snapshot is a restorable version of the storage element (e.g., the active file system) created at a predetermined point in time and, as noted, is “read-only” accessible and “space-conservative”. Space conservative denotes that common parts of the storage element in multiple snapshots share the same file system blocks. Only the differences among these various snapshots require extra storage blocks.
Because creation of snapshots results in additional space consumption, a storage system that supports snapshots may run out of space even though the total size of user-created data does not amount to the total available storage space. If a volume is full, writes start to fail even when the system is up and running, thereby causing downtime.
Some existing systems implement a technique of space reservations, where a storage system administrator is permitted to set a fractional reserve percentage for an overwrite block reserve. Such space reservation is based on a theoretical amount of space required to completely overwrite each block stored in a PCPI, i.e. to have complete divergence between the active file system and a PCPI. Where space reservations are implemented, it is not always possible to make an exact prediction of how much additional space need to be reserved. When too little space is reserved, the system may run out of space causing write failures. On the other hand, where too much space is reserved, a considerable amount of space may remain unused, thereby resulting in wasted storage server space capacity.
Existing systems do not provide an automated mechanism to increase storage space available to users by reclaiming space consumed by snapshot data or by utilizing some other automatic mechanism.